Women in many areas of IT get an earful when they
put forth expert opinion. They speak up and then get
pounded down by a few death-eater trolls whom
nobody has the guts to tell to shut up.
It makes it hard to become an entrepreneur or manager
or CIO, when your credibility and even your personality
is immediately questioned by some troll at every level
of your career, yet nobody calls the troll into account,
and the troll's arguments are considered legitimate.
Questions about a woman's personality, motives,
and even family planning decisions are considered to
be appropriate subjects for discussion.
If a woman speaks out about this unethical treatment,
she's considered to have caused the problem herself,
and therefore she doesn't have management
potential, isn't a team player, and should consider a
different career path, maybe in desktop/customer support.
Why would women put themselves forth as experts on
Wikipedia, in *writing*, when they get smacked down when
they speak up as experts at work?
An IT man puts himself forward as an expert when he does good
work, very few people give him a hard time, it's usually accepted on
its own merits. An IT woman puts herself forward as an expert
when she does good work, and a few insecure guys on the
team will stand up and challenge her publicly and discredit
whether her work was actually all that good. And they'll insult
her personality while they're at it. I've seen this happen. A lot.
Not many guys are insecure death eaters, probably less than
1 in 20, but this is enough to cast suspicion on women who
are doing well. And the men who listen to the insecure guys
and their 'locker room bravado' should know better,
and tell the insecure guys to grow up or shut up. Kind of like
telling gay bashers to shut up, but they'd be telling
women bashers to shut up, no difference.
So the question becomes why would women want to put
themselves down in print as experts, when at work they get
verbally, emotionally and physically intimidated, and at the
very least are frequently technically ostracized to the work
that the guys aren't interested in doing, and usually only get
assigned to the interesting work as an "assistant" to help a guy
that isn't able to do his work himself, even though she's a
'programmer' with experience, not an 'assistant programmer.'
These are not experiences that create the confidence to
put one's neck on the line by contributing to Wikipedia,
which is read by everyone in the world. Imagine the
number of trolls that would suddenly appear in your life!
Men aren't usually subjected to this treatment, so it
makes no sense for them to say that this doesn't happen.
I've seen it, experienced it, and heard men over
and over give weird reasons why unethical treatment of
women in the workplace is acceptable and reasonable,
and is usually the woman's fault anyway.
Notice this is not called 'sexual harassment'. This is
unethical treatment of women in the workplace. Some
companies (CSC, SAIC) have unofficially defined this
behavior as 'hazing' like it's some sort of fraternity and
if you don't pass then you don't belong at that company.
Of course, when you're old like I am, I'm not afraid to
tell the trolls to just shut up and stop treating women
as if they were too psychologically confused to
vote, own land or hold a job, do great work and
get recognized, paid, and promoted for it.
And I'm not afraid to say what I've seen, I'm
prepared for the people who don't want to
hear unpleasant realities to object and attack
me personally. I'm speaking of real events that
happen frequently and of a decades-old culture that
looks the other way when women are treated in
humiliating and unethical ways.
Somebody is probably going to post that I'm old and
frustrated. My answer is "No - I'm older, wiser, more
experienced, and unafraid of trolls."
My suggestion: We should have a women's "Post to Wiki"
month and see what happens. As a measure of support
by the IT world out there, any whiners or complainers
will immediately be asked by their management and
peers whether they are contemplating leaving work
to get married and have children.
- Susan Spencer Conklin